The peculiarities of Turkish revolutionary ideology in the 1930s : the Ülkü version of Kemalism, 1933-1936
Author
Aydın, Ertan
Advisor
Cizre, Ümit
Date
2003Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This dissertation analyzes a specific version of Turkish revolutionary
ideology in the 1930s, the ‹lk¸ version of Kemalism by means of textual
interpretation of ‹lk¸, the official journal of the Peopleís Houses, between
February 1933 and August 1936. The ‹lk¸ journal was published by a
particular faction of the Kemalists, the ‹lk¸ group, who competed with
ìconservative modernistî Kemalism and Kadrocu Kemalism for political and
intellectual supremacy within the regime. ‹lk¸ eliteís solidarist, radical
secularist, and anti-liberal alternatives to the state power enabled them to
present a more appealing version of Kemalism for the context of the 1930s,
which was the most authoritarian and radical phase of the Turkish Republic.
This study employs new methodological perspective for understanding the
nature of Kemalist ideology, which would provide a key to understand the
temporal and flexible nature of Kemalism. In fact, this is part and parcel of a
general approach to revolutions that highlights ìpolitics,î ìpolitical language,î
and ìsymbolic politicsî as the basic unit of analysis.
When the Turkish ruling elite encountered an ideological crisis owing to
the world economic depression and the failed Free Party experience, prominent
figures of ‹lk¸ attempted to form the content of the revolutionary ideology by
way of employing solidarist ideological assumptions. Solidarism became an
important means to establish secular, rational and social foundations of ethics
as a substitute for religion, which was said to prepare the Turkish society to
meet requirements of ìdemocracyî. The solidarist line of argumentation not
only created tension between democracy and secularism but also provided
justification for postponing democracy to an uncertain stage of time when the
democratic eligibility of the people would be proven by the ìtrueî
representatives of the national will (milli irade). ‹lk¸ís solidarism gave way to
an understanding of democracy that was truly embedded, if not confined to, in
the restrictions of a peculiar consideration of morality which the ‹lk¸ elite
called ìrevolutionary ethicsî (inkılap ahlakiyatı) or ìsecular moralityî (laik
ahlak).
Keywords
Ülkürevolutionary ideology
Turkish revolution
democracy
secular morality
secularism
solidarism